PROF. EMERITUS WILLEM VAN MECHELEN 

Van Mechelen has a unique combined background in physical education, human movement sciences, epidemiology, (occupational and sports) medicine and public health.

After a career as classroom physical education teacher and occupational physician, he completed a PhD at age 40.

From that time onwards he engaged himself seriously in science. His research group, which he has built up from scratch, has an international reputation and a leading position in the two fields of social medicine he represents: Occupational Medicine and Sports Medicine.

In Occupational Medicine he has evaluated and introduced graded-exercise programs as highly cost-effective means for return-to-work of workers on sick leave, as well as worksite lifestyle interventions for the entire workforce.

He has also been engaged in descriptive and aetiological studies on f.i. fatigue in shift work in the Norwegian offshore industry.

In Sports Medicine he is worldwide known for his 1992 conceptual paper on the ‘sequence of prevention’. This paper is one of the most cited papers in the sports injury prevention literature.

Another well-known Sports Medicine topic concerns the prevention of physical inactivity. His work has translated into guidelines and recommendations and has led in 2009 to the start of the VUmc spin-off company Evalua Nederland B.V. in which knowledge regarding the cost-effective prevention of sickness absence is brought to the corporate occupational health care market.  

Van Mechelen has ample (inter-)national experience as a member of expert committees and professional boards.

He is an often-asked speaker at international scientific meetings.

He has received a number of prestigious international prizes and awards, amongst which the citation award of the American College of Sports Medicine.

He also has a prize named after him and was awarded in 2017 an honorary doctorate degree from the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium and was made a member of the Wall of Fame of University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam in the same year.

In 2022 he was by the King of The Netherlands knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion.

His Google Scholar H-index is 151 and he has more than 86.000 citations.